Old New York Before The Skyscrapers In 39 Vintage Photos

These fascinating photos of old New York reveal what the city looked like before towering buildings dominated the skyline.

These days, one cannot think of New York City without envisioning the steely thicket of soaring buildings whose foundations dig deep into Manhattan soil. While inextricable from the idea and physical reality of New York City today, these skyscrapers compose a relatively meager part of the city’s nearly 400-year history.

Indeed, the New York City most of us recognize vis-a-vis its splintered skyline really began to develop over a short period of time.

From the early 1910s to the 1930s, New York City saw approximately 20 percent of its tallest buildings — including the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and the Woolworth Building, among others — enter construction. And with it, endless commentary on the physical appearance and meaning of the city that French architect Le Corbusier famously deemed a “beautiful disaster.”

Below, we look back at a New York City on the cusp of architectural transformation — just as planners and architects began looking high into the sky and saw not clouds but opportunity: